The merchants of plastic containers such as beverage bottles and food trays are demanding container identifications which are electronically recognizable for purposes of improving commercial transactions involving such containers. At present, one of the primary such identifications are 1 and 2 dimension barcode marking which generate a light signal requiring a line of sight between the reader and the barcode. In addition, there are some products which include electrical signal generators such as radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags. An advantage of RFID tags is that a line of sight is not required between the tag reader and the tag. Accordingly, tags can be hidden, and still read.
One problem with RFID tags is that, unlike barcodes, they have structure (e.g. antenna, circuitry, substrate) which requires handling and support relative to a container which is much more complicated than just printing a barcode on a container label or directly onto a container. Additionally, plastic containers are thermally formed, or thermally processed after filling. The temperatures at which these thermal processes are carried out will often destroy the signal generating functionality of a typical RFID tag.
The invention provides a method for molding a plastic container within a mold including an RFID tag to generate a container which leaves a mold having an RFID tag bonded between the container and a label. The invention also provides for an integrally, extrusion blow molded container, label and RFID tag combination.